Saturday, September 3, 2016

Staycation, All I Ever Wanted

This gorgeous photo of autumnal Graceland was taken by reader (and star of
WGN's "Weekend Workbench") Ryan Salzwedel. Hard to believe this is just
steps away from the corner of Magnolia and Montrose. Click to enlarge.

Chicagoist does a series of posts about staycations -- what to see in various neighborhoods in Chicago if want to play tourist. This is what they ran about Uptown last year. (You can see all of their staycation ideas for various parts of Chicago here and here. Wow, I want to go to the Stony Island Art Bank now.) It's supposed to be nice out this Labor Day weekend, so worth a read and a few adventures close to home.

"Eat at Ba Le: Dozens of excellent restaurants, from Southern to Belgian, Vietnamese to progressive American, call Uptown home. But for the purposes of this visit, Ba Le takes the cake with their easy to eat and easier to enjoy bahn mi in almost two dozen varieties. Their new location opened up space for French pastries to complement their bread program, meaning hungry customers can relish a divine three-course meal for under $20. Ba Le is located at 5014 N. Broadway St.

Shop at Broadway Supermarket: While on this Northside Asian expedition, stop at one of the area’s specialty markets, equipped with everything from fish, dried meat, fresh rice noodles and cans of coconut milk that will hurt your wallet significantly less than other grocery stores. Stock up on bundles of soba noodles for quick weeknight pasta dishes spiked with fish sauce, rice vinegar, lime and cilantro—making pad thai is easier than you think. Broadway Supermarket is located at 4879 N. Broadway St.

Visit Graceland Cemetery: Of course Montrose Beach might win Chicago’s finest in summer months, but when the breeze hits just a little too hard, head slightly southwest to experience true Chicago history. Established in 1860 by a prominent lawyer, Thomas Bryan, and supported by wealthy locals including our first mayor, William Ogden, the cemetery was and still is an oasis of architectural and landscape beauty. Our most beloved architects lay to rest here too: Louis Sullivan, John Root, Daniel Burnham, and Mies van der Rohe, among others, in addition to dozens of Chicagoans whose names one might recognize from street names galore. Graceland Cemetery is located at 4001 N. Clark St.

Drink at The Green Mill: No visit to Uptown would be complete without a session at the venerable jazz lounge. From the iconic sign to the unchanged decor, history and tradition live inside these walls (and in its underground tunnels), modeled after the '40s-era Uptown House in Harlem. Lesser known fact: The bar is open at noon every day and doesn’t charge a cover unless there’s music. But let there be music! The Green Mill is located at 4802 N. Broadway St.